WRCF report says Wilmot Township growing at slower rate than rest of region

A recent report from WRCF was presented to Wilmot council on Nov. 24 noting that Wilmot is not growing as fast as others in the region. Screenshot taken from WRCF presentation

By Amanda Modaragamage

The Waterloo Region Community Foundation (WRCF) presented its Vital Signs report to Wilmot council at the Nov. 24 meeting, showing the township is growing at a much-slower rate than the rest of the Region of Waterloo.

The focus was on social infrastructure, highlighting that Waterloo Region has been the fastest-growing region in the country over the past decade (33 per cent) and has one of the youngest demographics, with an average age five years below the national average.

Wilmot Township, however, grew at just 11 per cent. The report found that frequent use of social infrastructure, such as gyms, parks and community centres, correlates with better mental health, higher life satisfaction and stronger community bonds throughout communities in the region.

Presenter Eric Avner, WRCF president and CEO, said Wilmot is older and has been aging more rapidly than the rest of Canada, while the region overall is becoming more diverse.

“Interestingly enough, while the region has grown quickly over the last decade – 33 per cent – Wilmot has actually grown smaller compared to the region,” Avner said.

Avner also noted that along with the rising age across Wilmot Township, diversity is also lagging.

“While the region itself has been getting younger, the township hasn’t. It’s a little bit of an outlier in that respect – it has been aging more rapidly than the rest of Canada. Similarly, the rest of the region is getting more diverse and this is not quite the trend in the township. The racialized population in the rest of the region has gone up dramatically. By comparison, the numbers in the township are lower than that, and people moving in from outside of Canada are lower than the region as a whole as well.”

The report also looked at arts and culture and library usage throughout the region, again noting that Wilmot Township is not rebounding post-pandemic as strongly as other areas.

“Libraries are one of the few areas where we could actually get consistent data across the region,” Avner said. “At this point in time, the township libraries were actually at a lower use rate. They weren’t coming back as quickly as the libraries in the other parts of the region.”

Despite the concerns, Avner noted one positive: volunteerism.

“For the township, some good news is that the percentage of volunteers is actually a bit higher than the region as a whole,” he said.

Coun. Kris Wilkinson said he is interested to learn more about the data, but he is hesitant to say it’s all bad news, noting that Wilmot scored higher in life satisfaction and sense of belonging – something he believes should be celebrated.

“I don’t think it’s an accident that we score so well on satisfaction and belonging,” Wilkinson said. “I think we’re a very tight-knit community and we’re pretty deliberate about how we grow. It’s interesting to me that we are older on average than everybody else, and that might even dictate why our volunteer rate is a little bit higher. … I fear that if our numbers eventually flip and we start to get younger, will our volunteer numbers go down, and does that potentially affect happiness? I don’t know, but there’s certainly some interesting information you can take away from this.”

Avner’s final recommendation was for Wilmot council to explore ways to engage younger residents and more diverse populations in arts and cultural activities to attract a younger, more diverse population in the years to come.